A Matter of Choice

Since I started my blog I have written a post for boys on their birthdays, it was getting harder to do as they got older and last year I decided to stop at 10 years - conveniently of course as Leo turned 10, but it was a nice round number and also a good time to print them all off and give them to him now he was old enough to appreciate them all.  So this year I've saved myself a job but I can't have a birthday go by without a birthday collage... And a little flashback to his first birthday... For the last few years we have had Leo's party on a different day to his birthday because the last week of May is 'crazy week'.  Due to half term in the UK it's usually the busiest week of the year here in Cyprus for weddings, of course this year is a little different as we still have no tourists but luckily we are out of lockdown and so we can still have a party for him.   Our parties are always very small so we fit within the rules too! Every year I end up retelling the

Like most of the world Cyprus has been in lock down since March.  It all happened quite suddenly here, first the schools closed on 12th March, and these were quickly followed by bars and restaurants closing on 15th March and airports and borders closed with exceptions for repatriations who had to go straight into government quarantine for 14 days.  I was really surprised at the speed it all came about, it seemed like one minute people were sharing info on facebook with a list of European countries that were free of the coronavirus of which Cyprus was one, and then the next everything was closing around us.  Towards the end of the week of March 15th,  there had been cafes and bars voluntarily closing,  I was watching the comments and the general mood on facebook as it started to change.  Some were being praised for shutting up and many were being judged and also slated for continuing to open,  it was even said that bars were trying to 'profit from a pandemic' - I thought they w

I last published a blog post on here at the end of March.  The Cyprus lockdown had begun but had not yet reached the strictest measures.  What a strange time the last couple of months have turned out to be, a time that none of us could have predicted or even imagined just a short while ago.  Like many others I was full of plans, ways to keep busy, and making lists of educational online activities, home schooling plans and fun family activities to do. Exercise plans, jobs around the house and work.  I was going to blog!  (I always say that, but I do still miss the ol' blogging days)  I've not done everything, but I've not done nothing either. While it hasn't all been wall to wall productive time, I'm doing pretty well I think, I'm sure others out there are 'doing better' but I'm even more sure there are many doing worse..... and by worse I don't mean doing less productive things, but fighting with some sort of guilt that they are not 'doing en